I find it amazing the number of people who are ready to jump off the Marquis Gray bandwagon already. We spent the last 2 years calling for Brew to put Gray in the game more. Now that MG is is the guy, everyone is freaking out because he isn't the next Fran Tarkenton. Good Grief.
The reality is that MG is the only QB on the roster that gives us a chance to win a few games. He is that talented and is a man among boys. When I watch, I see pass plays break down, then he takes off and make some nice moves to break free. He may struggle with accuracy, but we should be used to that after the past several years.
My biggest fear is that MG might get killed if he has to run that often. If MG gets hurt, we may be in big trouble, since we have 3 freshmen as backups. For all you Alipate lovers, get with the program and understand he will not play QB for Kill. He flat out is too big & slow and cannot move enough to run this offense. He is behind 3 freshman and took less than 5 snaps at Saturday's scrimmage. The other practice I watched, he never took a snap with the 1st, 2nd or 3rd string offense. That should tell you something. He ain't as good as the hype sold to us.
As for the other posters who are concerned about the lack of excitement over the first 10 practices, take a dose of reality. There is a reason that Kill allowed all the practices to be open to the public. It is because the work is pretty vanilla. Do you think he is going to offer any tendencies that anyone can watch or learn about? For example, NIU ran the ball about 60% of the time, yet it seemed the scrimmage yesterday was tilted 70% pass vs run. The coaches are looking at technique and effort to see who they will go with once the season actually starts. The real work begins on Monday during the closed sessions.
Though there is nothing to get overly excited about at this point, what I learned by watching practice & the final scrimmage is the following:
The coaching staff has worked extensively to improve the kicking/punting game. That was on full display as witnessed by Hawthorne's long FGs and some fantastic punts.
The team is much more organized/disciplined. There is no confusion about which players need to be on/off the field. The players get in/out of the huddle quickly, ready to run a play.
The coaches have found a way to bring freshman up to speed quickly. A lot of true freshman play quite a bit on the 2nd unit. Even the freshman QBs seem able to run the basic offense. Foreman had a really nice drive at the end of the scrimmage. This is really encouraging for future seasons.
